It’s Official: Carl Icahn Backs Trump For President

September 28, 2015

Carl Icahn is no stranger to controversy, and now the prominent “activist investor” has decided he’s all in for Donald Trump, telling a media outlet he’s endorsing “The Donald” in his bid for the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination.

According to Fortune Magazine:

“It took a few months, but Carl Icahn is now backing Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

The activist investor is set to publicly endorse his fellow billionaire’s campaign to ascend to the nation’s highest office. Bloomberg reports that Icahn — who supports Trump’s stances on overhauling taxation and immigration policies, as well as raising interest rates — officially announced his support for the billionaire real estate mogul and reality television star in an interview that will be published in full Tuesday.

In June, Icahn publicly balked at Trump’s suggestion of him as a potential Treasury Secretary (along with Henry Kravis and Jack Welch). At the time, Icahn said he was “extremely surprised” by Trump’s candidacy and at the mention of his own name for a cabinet position, saying that he was “flattered” but not interested.

Then, last month, Icahn did an about face following the first Republican primary debate, announcing in a series of tweets that he would accept Trump’s offer of the Treasury Secretary post and adding that “we are in dire need of a breath of fresh air” when it comes to corporate leaders and elected officials.”

Trump continues to lead in the polls but finds Dr. Ben Carson and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina hot on his trail…

http://conservativeintel.com/2015/09...for-president/

. . . Icahn developed a reputation as a ruthless "corporate raider" after his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985.^[12] The result of that takeover was Icahn systematically selling TWA's assets to repay the debt he used to purchase the company, which was described as asset stripping. In 1988, Icahn took TWA private, gaining a personal profit of $469 million, and leaving TWA with a debt of $540 million. In 1991, Icahn sold TWA's prized London routes to American Airlines for $445 million.^[13]

Icahn also attempted the grand prize of U.S. Steel, launching a hostile takeover for 89% of the industrial giant for $7 billion ($15.1 billion in 2014) in late 1986. He was finally rebuffed by CEO David Roderick on January 8, 1987.^[14]

In 2004, Icahn purchased a large block of stock of Mylan Laboratories, after Mylan had announced a deal to acquire King Pharmaceuticals. Icahn threatened a proxy fight over the acquisition, on the ground that the deal required Mylan to overpay. In early 2005, Mylan gave up its efforts to acquire King, but according to the management, the decision was made after it had monitored relevant facts, not due to pressure from Icahn.

In 2006, Icahn sold his stake in KT&G (Korea Tobacco & Ginseng) for a profit.

In 2007, Icahn and his affiliates owned majority positions in firms including ACF Industries,American Railcar Industries, XO Communications, Philip Services, and NYSE-listed Icahn Enterprises, formerly known as American Real Estate Partners.

Icahn made an attempted run as a major shareholder of Time Warner, owning about 3.3% of the company valued at billions of dollars. He has been actively seeking to influence the direction of Time Warner, often in conflict with its former chief executive, Richard Parsons. Although Time Warner recently sold 5% of its AOL division, Icahn has been pressing for additional action to increase shareholder value. On February 7, 2006, a group led by Icahn and Lazard Frères CEO Bruce Wasserstein unveiled a 343-page proposal calling for the breakup of Time Warner into four companies and stock buybacks totaling approximately $20 billion. On February 17, 2006, the Icahn-led group agreed with Time Warner to not contest the re-election of Time Warner's slate of board members at the 2006 shareholders meeting. In exchange for the Icahn group's cooperation, Time Warner would buy back up $20 billion of stock, nominate more independent members to the board of directors, cut $1 billion of costs by 2007, and continue discussions with the Icahn group over their proposal, particularly on the future of Time Warner Cable.

In 2008, Icahn showed interest in the takeover of Yahoo! and the ousting of Jerry Yang from his position as CEO to allow Microsoft to purchase the web company.^[15]

Icahn sold his casino interests in Nevada on February 21, 2008. They included theStratosphere, Arizona Charlie's Boulder, Arizona Charlie's Decatur, and Aquarius Casino Resort which are operated through American Entertainment Properties, a subsidiary of Icahn's major company, Icahn Enterprises. The sale price of $1.3 billion was roughly $1 billion more than he paid for the properties.

In June 2008, Icahn launched The Icahn Report which campaigns for shareholder rights. It hosts United Shareholders of America where individual investors can sign up and take part.

Icahn was a director of Blockbuster until January 2010 and the chairman of Imclone, Icahn Enterprises, XO Communications, WestPoint Home, Cadus, and American Railcar Industries. He is a beneficial owner of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, Vector Group and has had significant holdings in Time Warner. Icahn tried to take over Marvel Comics, coming into conflict with Avi Arad, Ron Perelman, and Ike Perlmutter.^[16] Marvel was instead acquired by The Walt Disney Company in late 2009.

Icahn's hedge funds currently own 5.6% of biotechnology company Biogen Idec. Beginning in 2007, Icahn has steadily increased his stake in Biogen, seeking to possibly acquire, break up, and/or sell off various parts of the company.^[17] As of June 2009, Icahn has managed to seat two of his allies on Biogen's board with the apparent goal of splitting the company into two entities and possibly replacing CEO James C. Mullen, of whom he has been highly critical.^{[18][dated info]}

In July 2010, Icahn acquired a 14 percent stake in Mentor Graphics. Based on this acquisition, Mentor Graphics signed a poison-pill provision. As of September 2010, Icahn owns just less than 15 percent of Mentor Graphics. On February 22, 2011 he made an offer to buy Mentor Graphics for about $1.86 billion in cash in a move to push other suitors to declare themselves. On October 31, 2012 Icahn bought 5.5 million shares of the internet video service provider Netflix taking a 10% stake in the company.^[19]

In February 2013 Forbes listed Icahn as one of the 40 Highest-Earning hedge fund managers.^[20]

In July 2013 Icahn started an attempt to acquire Dell Inc.
On August 13, 2013 Icahn announced that his new stock pick is Apple, pushing the stock up 5%.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2013, Icahn acquired around 61 million shares in Talisman Energy prompting shares in the ailing Canadian oil producer to surge. He also announced he would seek a seat on the board of the company.^[21]

In November 2013, Icahn disclosed he had acquired a 12.5% interest in Hologic, a medical device and diagnostics manufacturer. He subsequently influenced the board to increase its membership by two, which were filled by directors supported by Icahn (each newly appointed director is a managing director of one of Icahn's holding companies) . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn

JohnDoe2, I do not understand the purpose of your post.

So Icahn is a tough business man. Anyone who tries to run a business like a charity will fail. If the idea is, that buying a failing company and breaking into pieces is inherently bad of itself that would be misleading. It depends on the variables of a specific situation. Have we not repeatedly been told by liberals that huge corporations are evil simply because they are big. Of course if they are part of the crony capitalist network funding Marxist Democrats and RINOs then the liberals fall silent. It is only the other guys big shots who are bad. Of course usually the big shots try to give to everybody as insurance that whomever wins they will have a friendly politician to work with.

So maybe Icahn is not a nice man. Trump has often spoken of good businessmen who are effective in making money but not nice people.

I just want to say if Icahn is a tough, perhaps mean, business man, I would love to have him in charge of deporting illegal aliens. George Patton, perhaps our best general in WWII, was often criticized as a tough, mean man. Patton won battles.